Real Ones
by tamsinmouse
Summary: After sleeping with Levi for the first time, Cath is unsure if she's ready to have sex again. Explicit M.


Winter in Lincoln crept through the window frames and unseen gaps in the structure of his upper, upper room. The journey from the front door to Levi's bedroom made her think of the Burrow, running into college housemates instead of Weasleys and climbing the tight staircase to his rickety, tower-like floor. Cath loved it there despite what being alone with Levi inevitably meant... again. If she wanted to - it was still up to her.

"Aghhhhhhh." Levi curled himself into a ball and pulled the strings of his hoodie shut.

"Should I turn on the AC?" said Cath, smiling.

"I need three more layers of socks and a heated Snuggie," he said. "I don't know what it is about this room. I've walked through blizzards more temperate than this place with the heat on."

Cath was bundled in fuzzy turquoise socks (Wren's) and a navy zip-up Simon Snow hoodie. Her glasses had fogged up so much she'd decided to put them on the nightstand, watching slightly blurry Levi retract his arms into his sweater. She moved over to him and reached around his back to pull him into a cuddle.

"Still cold?" said Cath.

"Oh yes, very cold. _Incredibly_ cold," said Levi. "I think you should stay like that permanently."

Cath had made strides in how much (and long) she'd allowed Levi to touch her. Touch of any kind. She no longer recoiled when he laced his fingers with hers while driving, jumped when he hugged her unexpectedly, or wriggled out of his hands when he held her face to kiss her.

Her hand rested on his chest. Levi brought it up to his lips to kiss and she felt the corners of his mouth rise.

They'd had sex for the first time together exactly six days ago, a kind of painful, kind of amazing experience she was happy she talked herself into, because Levi was love. His black wardrobe, his dark blond hair that cowlicked and swooped as playfully as his personality, and his ridiculous smile she buckled over were Cath Favorites, but she had to decide if she was ready to have sex again. Levi hovered between knowing she needed time to adjust to a new part of the relationship and also knowing she needed gentle convincing if that adjustment was going to happen at all.

"Can we get under the covers? Although I know how much you love to suffer Nebraska winters," ribbed Cath.

Levi rolled over to face her, their noses very close. He was studying her face for signs of an all-okay of where this could be leading. Maybe, could be. Cath's limbs were shy and stubborn and moved - or didn't - all on their own.

"Yeah, sure. I like covers," said Levi, casually. He was holding himself back from too much optimism, she could tell, brought to the edge and back of getting undressed together twice. She'd changed her mind at the last minute before they'd taken off everything and asked to just make out instead. Levi was patient and understood the disconnect between her pervy thoughts and her flighty body, but she saw the disappointment when she stalled things. Cath was worried disappointment would turn into frustration and eventual resentment.

She was ready to have sex, and _wanted_ to have sex again, it was just a matter of making her body move past hesitancy that had nothing to do with Levi. Cath remembered the warmth of his bare stomach pressed onto hers in contrast to the icy room and inched closer. She kissed him lightly, their lips touching only just, and moved on to the sensitive skin of his tan neck. Levi tilted his head into hers.

"Cather..." he said, trying to be the responsible one.

"It's okay," she said, "I want to kiss you here."

She made room in the covers to hunch over kneeled beside him, careful to avoid making contact with his lower body. She was warming her frozen limbs up slowly and didn't want to spook herself away from him. Cath pushed the hood from his head and warmed her breath over him while she unzipped the hoodie halfway down the front, a faded band t-shirt underneath. She'd heard him listening to them in the truck.

"Take off your sweater," said Cath, no trace of flirtation in her voice.

Levi obediently arched his back and wriggled out, tossing it beside the bed, unseen. He shivered but didn't comment on it, just stared up at her. Cath unzipped her own and pulled it off to add it to the bedside pile. Levi's arms were stiffly at his side and she could tell he was going to be letting her make all the moves to avoid another jinx.

"Hello," she smiled down on him.

"Hi," he broke his stoic look to grin.

Cath leaned down and kissed him firmer this time, letting her tongue wander to find his, and saw Levi's hands hover near her - apparently afraid to touch. She took a hovering hand and placed it respectably on her hip a safe distance from the curve of her butt.

"I'm taking my shirt off now." It felt safer to announce it to herself, fair warning.

She peeled off the plain long sleeved top and looked at Levi looking at her, breasts bound in a burgundy Calvin Klein bra she'd gotten at Costco.

"I'm taking your shirt off now." Cath willed her hands to move to the hem of his t-shirt and pull up over his head and away. It joined the pile.

Levi chanced it by dragged the tip of his finger for a moment down her forearm, tenderly. Her arm hair stood up in a shiver.

"I'm sitting on your lap now." She put her legs astride his hips but panicked for a moment at the thought of feeling his crotch through her jeans, deciding to sit lower, on his upper thighs.

Leaning towards him, her head was level with his rib cage now. Levi's chest was covered in goosebumps and she immediately wanted to make the exposed skin worth it for him. Cath began kissing in an invisible dotted line down the middle of his stomach, unsure where she was taking things but committed to keep trailing her lips to his jeans. She looked at the button and bronze zipper containing the obvious bulging in his pants and undid them swiftly to let it grow larger.

Levi quietly got her attention. "Are you sure?"

She only stared in response and continued pulling his jeans down his legs and entirely off under the covers. She rolled onto her back away from sight and took off her own pants, both of them only in underwear (and a bra) now. This was further than they'd gotten the whole week, but she wasn't going to let it throw her again from doing what she wanted, what Levi wanted, too. Cath climbed back on top and let herself feel the exciting stiffness in his boxer briefs, grinding herself lightly over it to his apparent liking.

"Come here, Cather," he said softly, and supported her wrists to bring her down to kiss him. She did.

She was silencing any hesitancy left, remembering what she loved about their first time and hungry for more of it. Levi thread his fingers through her hair (out of its ponytail for once) and kissed her back greedily, either hopeful or making the most of it while he could before Cath inevitably put the brakes on. But the nagging voices were gone, replaced with the taste of Levi. Cath moved Levi's hands to a row of bra clasps on her back, his long fingers fumbling only a little to remove them and release her breasts. She straightened her shoulders and pointed her chest at him to use what she had, inviting his mouth to cup on and around them. Levi flicked his tongue on her nipples and kissed up and down the pale mounds, moving from one to the other with a glint in his eye. Cath's breasts were deceptively bigger than they looked in her regular uniform of cotton tees, but could be seen in their actual size while naked or in the push-ups and cleavage Wren usually sported for them. Cath was not content to leave things at that and began shimmying her thighs lower down Levi's tall frame. It was a big, big step in doing what she was scared to try.

"I'm... taking off your boxer briefs and putting you in my mouth," she said, clear on each word.

Levi was as _hard_ as she imagined it was possible for a guy to be. She took it as encouragement, holding the shaft of him firmly and doing her best to hold back her teeth from scraping his delicate skin. He moaned into his bicep when she carefully took him in and out, pressing her tongue to the underside and watching most of the pink blur dip in and out of her vision. Levi's hips lifted a little and pushed himself even farther into the back of her mouth. He was massaging her head with a hand reaching down but unable to take his muffled mouth off his other arm. This was as far as she could take it tonight, she knew.

Cath squeezed a little faster and waited for the build of more moans and the shape of him rigidly defined on her tongue. Levi clawed the sheets with his fingers and uncovered his face for the finale, climaxing inside her warm mouth and tangling fingers around her brown hair. He looked down and she kissed the last drop off of him, a strange saltiness that made her blush.

"I'm sorry, I wasn't expecting to do that. But... wow," said Levi, looking stunned.

"I wanted to do that, but I'm not ready for round two. Right now I'm okay with doing, um, other things," she said. "Last week wasn't a mistake and I'm glad it happened, I just need more time to make it a regular thing. I'm scared of getting pregnant, it's a weird fear."

"Take all the time you need, you know I'm not going anywhere. No matter what you decide," he added.

"It won't be that long, I promise," she said.

"Again, not going anywhere." He patted the pillow beside him. "I think the fourth Simon Snow is on TV, wanna watch?"


End file.
